All pieces are designed, assembled and finished in Sydney Australia. Some of the jewellery pieces are completely hand-made and are by nature one of a kind, others involving techniques such as rapid prototyping and laser cutting start their journey on a computer screen before they come to life inside a machine.

The bridging of both traditional techniques and new technologies is a strong pillar of Joao Vaz's design philosophy. What we now see as traditional, was once seen as new and cutting age. Understanding this progression is crucial in order to create now what will eventually become the new traditions and ancient technologies.

A brass ring is polished by hand in the Sydney studio.

ACRYLIC - 100% recyclable material also known as Lucite and perspex. Sourced from the laser cutting company Modelcraft in Sydney, Australia. The company uses acrylic from different countries, mainly Germany, Indonesia and China.

CUBIC ZIRCONIAS - The cubic crystalline form of zirconium dioxide ZrO2. First introduced in the jewellery industry in 1976, they are a hard stone (8.5 Mohs scale, diamonds are 10 in the scale) of perfect clarity and exceptional brightness. The princess and cushion cut cubic zirconias are manufactured by Fu Rong Gems in the province of Guangxi, China. The round cut cubic zirconias are sourced from Rio Grande and are manufactured in Switzerland.

STONE SETTING - All stones are set in our Marrickville Sydney studio in Australia.

3D PRINTING - Done by Shapeways, a company based in the Netherlands and New York. 3D printed alumide is a nylon based material with added aluminium particles, which creates a metallic sparkle effect.

WAX CARVING & METAL CASTING - Wax is used widely in jewellery to sculpt pieces such as rings and bangles before casting them in metal. Most of the work we do in wax starts with wax sheet, which is cut and welded together in order to create the final shape.

This process developed by Joao Vaz, is part of the long tradition in jewellery of 'lost wax casting', where each piece is individual and completely unique, and in order to reach the final metal piece you must 'loose' the original wax design through a melting process.

The wax we use is sourced from Rio Grande and produced in the United States and it's cast in metal by Pure Casting in Sydney, Australia, using Australian sourced metals, and whenever possible recycled metals.

METAL COMPONENTS AND CHAINS - The jewellery findings (earring hooks, jump rings, etc) and metal chains we use are sourced from a variety of suppliers such as Rio Grande (United Sates) and RegentCo (Australia) among others. These components and manufactured in multiple countries, mostly: Australia, United States, China and United Kingdom.

An acrylic bangle from the collection Clarice is laser cut in Sydney, Australia.

Further reading:

If you'd like to do some more reading on the impact mining of both metal and gems has on local communities and the environment, the following links will help you get started: